40-year-old cold case: sexual murder of Renate Pollaczek

8:26 p.m.: Renate Pollaczek was raped and was possibly unconscious. She later woke up again and was then strangled with a kitchen towel by the perpetrator. The woman had no chance.

8:25 p.m.: The boss found the woman around 7:30 that morning. The outside lights were switched off. The woman’s body was in the bar.

8:23 p.m.: As stated in the video, the young man being sought, who was the last to enter the bar, was around 20 to 25 years old and had a mustache. He was probably wearing a beige tracksuit.

8:17 p.m.: Now it’s about a 40-year-old cold case. The death of Renate Pollaczek.

The case at a glance:

Berlin, April 11, 1986: On April 10, 1986, 44-year-old Renate Pollaczek took over the night shift in the popular 24-hour neighborhood bar “Schult Heiß-Baude” in Berlin-Charlottenburg. The last guest leaves his local bar early in the morning, shortly after 5 a.m., and meets a man at the entrance whom he had never seen there before. Shortly afterwards the action occurs: Renate Pollaczek is raped by an unknown person and ultimately murdered with a kitchen towel. The perpetrator also takes the contents of the cash register with him: around 150 DM. The case will be reopened by the investigative authority in 2023.

It is now clear: the perpetrator left DNA traces at the crime scene – including on “Camel” brand cigarettes and on the corpse itself. But a comparison with the DNA database has not yet produced a hit. The stranger has not yet been identified to this day.

Unsolved crimes that are re-enacted and presented with the criminal police – that’s what it is Concept of “file number XY … unsolved”. On Wednesday, March 18th at 8:15 p.m. on ZDF, the police are again asking for help and information.

The “file number XY… unsolved” cases at a glance:

Brutal robbery in a police shirt

Cologne, October 21, 2023: A 44-year-old from Cologne takes out a bank loan of 50,000 euros, which he uses to buy a new apartment and a longer trip. He keeps the rest in his apartment, which he lives alone with his dog. On October 21, 2023, shortly before 10 p.m., the Cologne native was lying asleep on the sofa when two unknown people suddenly kicked in the apartment door, overpowered him and tied him up.

One of the two men is wearing a shirt with a POLICE print, which is why the 44-year-old initially thinks of a police operation. However, when the two perpetrators start searching his apartment and brutally beating him, he realizes: These are not real police officers. Within 30 minutes, the perpetrators stole cash worth 14,000 euros and a watch worth 3,000 euros. They are recorded by a hidden camera, the recordings of which are saved in an online cloud.

During the attack, the victim suffered serious injuries to his face: his jaw, cheekbone and eye socket were broken. The man from Cologne has to undergo multiple operations. Due to the post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the attack, he is still unable to practice his job to this day.

Attack on 80-year-old widow: Perpetrators make off 80,000 euros

Berlin, April 11, 1986: In the early evening of September 25, 2025, an 80-year-old widow opens the door to her bungalow in the southeast of Holzminden. Two masked men stand in front of it and gently direct the woman into the living room. Out of sheer fear, she tells the men without asking where the safe is. While one of the two guards the old lady, his companion searches the entire house: He finds several hundred euros in cash, the inherited family jewelry, and her late husband’s valuable coin and stamp collection.

When her guard briefly loses sight of her, the homeowner manages to secretly call her daughter and tell her about the attack. But immediately afterwards the perpetrator snatches the phone out of her hand and throws it into the garden. The daughter immediately calls the police. While several police cars arrived, the perpetrators fled with loot worth around 80,000 euros. As they flee through an area of ​​terraced houses on Schlüterstrasse, several residents notice them.

Eleven-year-old discovers a burglar – and hides

Euskirchen, March 14, 2024: An eleven-year-old boy is alone with the dogs for a while in the afternoon in his family’s house, which is located on a remote property outside Euskirchen-Kuchenheim. During this time, an unknown man climbs over a wall onto the property. The stranger then stacks roof tiles on top of each other in order to enter the house via a window on the mezzanine floor.

At around 4:50 p.m. the eleven-year-old heard unusual noises. When he goes to see where the noises are coming from, he discovers the burglar in a room looking for loot. The stranger doesn’t notice the boy. The eleven-year-old first tries to get the dogs out of the house, but then flees outside alone and without a cell phone. He is hiding there.

The perpetrator took 200 euros in cash and a collection of one-euro coins and fled. The man looks for a moment in the direction of the boy’s hiding place, but probably doesn’t notice him. The perpetrator escapes from the property using a garden ladder. The shocked eleven-year-old can then call his mother.

Robbery of a couple: perpetrators flee in a white van

Magdeburg, October 17 and October 25, 2025: On October 25, 2025, around 1 p.m., the doorbell of a single-family home in the Salbke district of Magdeburg rang. There is a fake parcel delivery person at the door who, with an accomplice, breaks into the house as soon as the 69-year-old resident opens the door.

The unknown men threatened the 69-year-old and his wife with a gun and tied them up. The perpetrators robbed cash and jewelry before fleeing in a white van, presumably driven by a third accomplice.

There is much to suggest that further acts were committed by the same perpetrators: On October 17, 2025, they were recorded by a surveillance camera in a similar case in Staßfurt, south of Magdeburg. Here they stole, among other things, a watch worth 13,500 euros and a bracelet with diamonds worth around 26,000 euros.

Brutal attack: robbers cut off man’s ear

Offenbach, 3rd/4th February 2026: On the night of February 3rd to 4th, 2026, three men broke into a single-family home on Kinzigstrasse in Dreieichenhain, a district of Dreieich in the Offenbach district. They surprise the residents while they sleep. The intruders tie up, gag and beat the couple, their daughter and granddaughter and demand cash and jewelry from them. The perpetrators stole several valuables.

But instead of fleeing, two of the perpetrators hold the two women and the granddaughter in the bedroom of the house, while the third drags the 70-year-old landlord into a neighboring room. There he cuts off the 70-year-old’s ear. Why is unclear. The perpetrators then fled in a getaway vehicle that was waiting on Danziger Straße.

Teresa Krug missing: Did her son murder the woman?

“XY International”, February 2025: There has been no trace of Teresa Krug, now 70, since February 2025. The woman, originally from Poland, speaks several languages ​​and sometimes calls herself Anna Kulpa.

The special thing about her case is that she is never officially reported missing. The police discovered her disappearance quite by chance – while investigating a murder in Herkenbosch, the Netherlands. On September 15, 2025, a 66-year-old man was stabbed to death on his own property. A car seen at the crime scene quickly leads investigators to a suspect: Teresa Krug’s 39-year-old son.

When the police want to question Teresa Krug as a possible witness, it turns out that she has disappeared without a trace. The officers found her papers in her apartment, including her bank card and her cell phone. Her son does not provide any information about her whereabouts. All attempts by the police to find Teresa Krug remain unsuccessful.

Investigators fear that something may have happened to her. One trail ultimately leads to Germany: the son has rented several storage rooms here. In one of them, the police discovered two blue garbage bags filled with T-shirts, other textiles and the remains of foam mattresses – all heavily soiled with blood. A DNA comparison shows that the blood comes from Teresa Krug. The investigators also found a shovel, a spade and a rake in a storage room that Teresa Krug rented herself – even though neither she nor her son own a garden.